American Horror Stories (2021) s03e04 Episode Script
Organs
1
[ALARM RINGING]
[PHONE CHIMES]
Amanda, right.
Amanda Scott.
Amanda. Babe.
I got to I got to
It's morning.
Oh, hi.
I got to get ready.
Yeah.
I'm really sorry. I just called you an Uber.
Real life.
It really gets in the way, babe.
["I'M A LUCKY GUY" BY MARK WYNTER PLAYING]
Real life.
It really gets in the way.
I'm a lucky guy ♪
To have you here in my arms ♪
I'm a lucky guy ♪
Croissants will have to be another day.
And all of your charms ♪
To think that you belong to me ♪
To know you're not a fancy-free ♪
That's the reason why ♪
Oh, boy ♪
I'm a lucky guy. ♪
I'm really making an effort
to relate to women
more healthily, Dr. Krystal.
And yet, you are full of anger.
You think I hate women?
Women raised me.
My whole culture is
pure matriarchy. I love women.
[LAUGHS] You love conquest, Toby.
You're confused.
You crave intimacy,
and yet, you are addicted
to the dopamine rush
of these women on apps and one-night stands.
Don't try and shame me, please.
I'm really not down with the way
in which men have been castrated today.
Castration? By women?
That's what's happening to America.
Men are being made to feel bad
for their desires.
Ah.
In the six months
we've been working together,
it seems to me you look upon women
as, uh, biological objects with sex organs
that you almost pay to be in proximity to.
To hunt.
Maybe I need to see a male doctor.
Someone who understands the battle.
So you look upon relations
between men and women as a war?
Women certainly do.
- The lists of toxic males?
- [PHONE BUZZING]
All the articles, firings,
reams of men being cancelled.
[PHONE CONTINUES BUZZING]
Uh
There seems to be a disconnect
between your heart and your brain.
We must work to make you
more whole, more integrated.
Hmm?
Um
I think we have to end early today.
I have to get back to
the office. There's a meeting.
Think about it, Toby.
The heart and the brain,
they're not communicating.
Mm? See you next week.
[PHONE BUZZES]
[TOBY] "Tech-Bro with sensitive side"
"seeks fun and games and more
"with someone who is in on
"the joke of life and wants
"good times without
"being too serious.
"My motto is
"'Make America fun again.'
"Need a plus-one for trips,
"concerts, festivals,
"wine tastings and
"hot animal sex.
JK."
Okay.
Come to papa.
[ENGINE REVS]
[SASHA] I mean, it doesn't
make me want to be anywhere near you,
but maybe a mail-order bride slash whore
- would like it. I don't know.
- [CHUCKLES]
- [SCOFFS]
- [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]
- Hey, you swiped left.
- [LAUGHS]
- Thought you liked me.
- Mm
You know, you should get on this app.
- Pincher is
- Pincher?
Toby, don't you want something
real and decent with another person?
"Real and decent"?
Those are qualities I want
in a law firm, not a lover.
Women prefer a decisive man,
not some neutered, post-modern,
hyper-allergenic, socialist poet
with low T and an even lower libido.
How's therapy going?
Frankly, you seem to be getting worse.
Krystal's a really good shrink.
I don't know what's going on.
I think she hates me, but I dig it.
It was a good recommendation,
although I don't know how I feel about
seeing the same shrink you're seeing.
[PHONE CHIMES]
Uh-oh.
Principal's office. Got to run.
[LEE] Toby.
My mentee, my protégé,
my bright shining star, my prodigal child.
Back in the doghouse.
And here we are having another chat.
You have brilliant ideas
about how to sell our services
and how to grow,
but you don't seem
to really care about anything
other than your own pleasure.
I care about profit margins,
about market forces.
Not as much as you care
about being a player.
Your performance review?
My God.
Late for work, late for meetings,
and, in those meetings,
you're unfocused and distracted,
always checking your phone,
always elsewhere.
I have several different constituencies
in the company that I serve,
and they all require my
Oh, should I take some
of those constituencies
away from you, then, Toby?
Send you to Iceland
to run analytics and comms?
Perpetual snow and ice? Huh?
- Want to chill out in Reykjavik?
- I bring in more clients than
What could you do if you actually cared?
About all of it?
- Not just the hunt?
- My mother was a secretary.
Work came first.
There was no room for fun.
She worked herself to the bone.
Yes, she worked for me,
and we gave you scholarships and advancement
because of the promise you displayed
and the loyalty your mother demonstrated.
I've delivered.
I've also had a couple of
not exactly complaints,
but suggestions of
- What?
- Something adjacent to misogyny.
Complaints about your
growing disdain for women.
[SCOFFS]
I joke sometimes,
but my whole schtick
is filled with irony. [CHUCKLES]
- It's not real toxic masculinity.
- Since your divorce,
you made some of
your female colleagues uneasy,
and that is a problem,
and even since you began therapy for it,
I don't see much progress.
I've invested so much in you.
[PHONE BUZZING]
I need an heir here.
- [TOBY] Uh-huh.
- [LEE] I'm talking about
who comes after the person
who comes after the person
who comes after me in this chair
and the stability of
not being a chronic fornicator,
being a serious man.
I need someone to really head up
our new advanced A.I. marketing
project next quarter.
I could do that.
I want it to be you, but
I don't think we can have
this conversation again, Toby.
The next one is more formal,
more people in the room,
more intense, more
final.
She wasn't critical of you at all?
She gave me a talking-to,
but it was more of a mom talk.
Has anyone complained about me?
I I mean
- [PHONE BUZZES]
- Hey, look at this.
Her name is Natessa.
Natessa? What is she, a candy bar?
That sounds like a fake name.
I don't care what her real name is.
Sometimes I go as Bruno Ziplock
1010. I mean, look at her.
Those angles, that jaw, those lips.
She's like a deep fake honey trap
from Russia.
She looks like a doll.
[NATESSA] Toby?
Oh, you look just like your
pictures. That's such a relief.
Yes, Toby, as advertised.
Hi. I'm Natessa.
Would you like another martini?
No.
I want to stay clear-headed
for the remainder of our hot night.
[NATESSA] Oh. Okay.
You don't drink too much, huh? I like that.
I've seen what it does to the liver,
the heart, and the brain.
And, uh, what about drugs?
What is this, a test?
You, uh, testing me for "mate-ability"?
Oh, uh, it's just I mean, it's clear
that you take care of your body.
I mean, you obviously work out, right?
What do you do? Like, weights? Yoga?
I put in my time.
Now, it's swimming and kettle bells, mostly.
Well, it's paying off. [CHUCKLES]
I, uh, I just really like healthy men,
I guess.
You sure you're not inspecting me
to see if I'm suitable material?
Well, I mean, at the end of the day, it's
it's all about biology.
♪
♪
Ow!
What?
Natessa?
[GRUNTING]
Ah.
What the fuck?
[GRUNTS]
[GROANING]
[CRYING, SCREAMS]
♪
♪
[HEAVY BREATHING]
Hello?
[DR. SON] It appears someone, illegally,
gave you a radical nephrectomy.
They took out your left kidney, Mr. Arcaño.
I really am not understanding
what you're telling me.
Uh
Where is it?
Do you have it chilling in an
ice box somewhere or something?
No. Well, it's not in your body,
for one thing.
This is no small, outpatient surgery.
It's usually done with robotics now,
if the organ's cancerous,
which I have no reason to believe yours was.
And there's something else.
Mr. Arcaño,
in addition to
something being removed from your body,
they also put something in.
Am I dreaming? Put what in?
Well, it's not gonna be
that simple, you see,
because it's very intricately
and surgically attached
to a knotted thicket of arteries
pressed right up against the vagus nerve,
which you really don't want to mess with.
If someone put it in,
I'm sure you can take it out.
I'm-I'm doing some more imaging,
and I'm consulting
with a couple of colleagues.
A guy from Tokyo, someone in Moscow.
Whoever did this, they're very good.
You could easily have bled out.
It's remarkable work.
This thing inside me
what's it do?
No idea.
I've heard about things like this.
These rings that are out there
stealing organs.
Yeah, I've read about them, too.
There's only one problem.
Which is?
They don't actually exist.
There has been some talk
about organ theft rings
on chat sites, mostly on
the dark web, but nothing concrete.
Bottom line, it's all urban legends.
An urban legend didn't steal my kidney.
If it wasn't an organ theft ring,
what was it?
Rather than treat this
like a conspiracy theory,
we're gonna approach the case
as a one-time event.
As long as you catch
that succubus from hell.
The "succubus from hell"
scrubbed her internet presence
completely, and someone erased
all the security camera feeds
in the building,
but you've given us a good description.
That's something solid to go on,
at least for now.
If anything else comes back
to you, you give us a call.
Take care.
[TOBY] Sasha
[SIGHS]
Why are you so good to me?
Well, despite your many character flaws,
I don't really care
how many kidneys you have.
And maybe I'm having
some second thoughts about
swiping left on you.
There.
That's her tattoo.
[PHONE CAMERA CLICKS]
What are you gonna do with?
Reverse image search.
I got a hit.
Cybele, goddess of fertility.
Ancient Rome.
[SASHA] Also known as the Great Mother,
or mother of the gods.
More like mother of
all psychopaths, actually.
[TOBY OVER PHONE] But
you still can't tell me what it is?
All I can say for sure is that
it's hard-wired into your system
and removing it is even trickier now.
Why is that?
[SIGHS]
- Because it's growing.
- Jesus.
Don't tell me this is cancer.
It's not a tumor.
Actually, it resembles
some sort of gland, but
what it's doing or how it got there,
it's a real puzzle.
Um, I'm thinking of recommending
you go to Brazil
where they deal with a lot
of odd organ issues.
Doctor, there's no way one woman
could've done this all on her own.
No.
You need a, uh, support staff
for work like this.
Just transporting the organs back and forth
would take a lot of skilled people.
I realize you've been through
a terrible experience, Toby.
I'm resilient. tough.
I'm okay. I'm a guy.
But it seems to me that,
despite all my warnings,
you're immersed in pure chaos.
The police were here today asking about you
and this terrible thing that happened.
- It might be in the papers.
- Someone just stole my kidney.
[SIGHS] I need time
to get back on track.
Don't I get a little credit?
For the trauma and shit?
I'd like you to take three months' leave.
You need to heal and take stock.
Go. Do a pilgrimage.
After that, we'll have you
come in and we'll sort through
what our options are.
I can't leave here.
- Please don't fire me, Lee.
- Go to a monastery in Crete,
take a vow of silence.
Drink bone broth and read the classics.
I don't know, but you're on hiatus.
I'll need your company credit card.
[KEYBOARDS CLATTERING]
[TOBY EXHALES]
- [CLEARS THROAT]
- What the fuck?
No. Keep away from me. You promised.
We need to talk.
You need to hear me.
I don't arrange escorts anymore.
I renounced my life of crime.
I found pickleball. And religion.
- I don't do escorts anymore.
- So
what do you want?
I'm interested in where you got the escorts.
You found them on the deep web, didn't you?
- [SIGHS] The dark web.
- Yeah, that's what you told me.
- The dark web.
- Maybe.
- So what?
- My point is,
you're good at it, right?
- The dark web?
- I know my way around.
- Yeah.
- I need you to do a deep dive.
- Find something for me.
- I'm sorry.
I'm-I'm launching the new beta thing.
Whatevs. Look, I'm here 20 hours a day.
I don't have time to take on
your extracurricular pussy projects.
You wouldn't want everyone here to know
about your old side hustle, would you?
Your supervisor, Max Lipstock?
Max? One of my best customers.
You want to blackmail me, be my guest.
Just know that the first thing I'll do
is turn over my client list.
Fine, let's do it the easy way.
- I'll pay you.
- I don't need the money.
- 40 grand.
- Fifty two.
- Fifty-two.
- Fine.
This is gonna take some time.
What is it you want to know?
- [THUNDER CRASHES]
- [GASPS]
[GRUNTS] Fuck me.
[SIGHS]
[NATESSA ECHOING] Toby?
Hi, Toby.
I just came by to take something back.
- [CRUNCHES]
- [TOBY SHOUTS]
[GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
- It's beautiful.
- [SCREAMS]
[GASPS, GRUNTING]
- [EXHALES]
- [PHONE BUZZING]
[PANTING]
Oh, God.
- Hello?
- [WYATT OVER PHONE] I have intel for you.
I went to the darkest places
on the dark web
chat rooms that even the FBI
doesn't know about
but this one group kept popping up.
And I couldn't figure out why
the name kept ringing a bell.
What's the name?
Magna Mater.
"Great Mother" in Latin.
Holy God, fuck me.
And the tattoo on the woman
who assaulted you,
- you said it was the Roman
- Roman goddess Cybele.
She was dangerous to men.
This is the group's motto.
What did you find out about the group?
It's very secret.
Very much on the frontiers of pleasure.
They hold regular events.
I mean, I don't, I don't know
what happens at these things,
but there's one next week, here, downtown.
Well, you got to get me in.
I don't care about the cost.
That's good, because it's a hefty buy-in.
A hundred grand.
And, it goes without saying,
we're gonna have to create
a fake identity for you.
[SASHA] I'm just, I'm honestly,
Toby, I'm a little bit worried
about what you're getting yourself into.
[PHONE BUZZING]
Go ahead.
Okay. I, uh, I programmed your key card.
It's got all the data you need to get in.
But one thing. I did a little
snooping, and this group
Be very careful.
I mean, kill them all,
but be careful doing it.
♪
Welcome to Magna Mater. Your card, sir.
Nice to have you back,
Mr. Phelps. We're all set.
Here you go, sir. Enjoy the evening.
I always do.
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪
[GAVEL BANGING]
[AUCTIONEER] Next up,
we have this very exquisite,
perfectly formed pancreas.
Its condition is rated 9.8.
You heard that right.
You generally don't get
ratings like that nowadays,
with all the junk food, the drugs,
preservative-laden foods,
but this one was harvested
from an 18-year-old female.
She was a nonsmoker, a nondrinker
who practiced veganism.
For a piece of this obvious quality,
we are going to start the bidding
at 200,000.
Do I hear 250? I have 250.
Who is going to make it three?
Three. 350?
350. Thank you.
Do I hear four,
for this exquisite, youthful, vegan
American pancreas,
from corn-fed Iowa?
[TOBY] You have your eye on that one, huh?
[MAN] Well, it's a beauty, isn't it?
[AUCTIONEER] We have four.
[TOBY] You look in good
health. Why the interest?
[AUCTIONEER] Who is going to make it 450?
[MAN] You must be new at this.
[TOBY] My first time.
[MAN] The organ's not for me.
This is strictly retail.
Uh, very few patients come through here.
Mostly those interested in the aftermarket.
You can move these in Russia
or China and double the price.
They love American organs
over there. Don't ask me why.
[AUCTIONEER] Do I hear 550?
[MAN] Why are you here? Medical reasons?
[TOBY] Just curious, I guess.
[MAN] You know, some people
consider human organ meat
a great delicacy.
I hear that, uh,
there's a little bistro in Paris
where human thymus gland is lightly broiled,
- like sweetbread.
- [AUCTIONEER] 750.
750 going once, going twice.
Sold for 750.
And now,
a supreme objet of beauty.
A human heart.
This is a stunning specimen.
8.5.
Harvested from Emporia, Kansas.
That's right, a lovely heart
from the heartland.
[TOBY] Feel this?
It's a Ruger .380 pistol, and it's pointed
at the exact same spot
you took out my kidney.
It'll pulverize your viscera,
leave you dying on the floor.
[NATESSA] You're not gonna shoot me in here.
[TOBY] Oh, please. Try me.
This is what's gonna happen.
We're going to go outside
and we're going to talk.
And that's your only chance
of getting out of here alive
"Natessa."
♪
Come on.
Listen, Toby, I'm sorry.
Really, I am. I
I don't know what else to say.
Why me?
Low-hanging fruit?
Wrong place at the wrong time?
Your DNA was on Ancestry.com,
and your genetic profile was perfect.
Men like you
"Men like me"?
What do you know about men like me?
Well, you
you think that you're invulnerable, but
you're actually the easiest targets.
You're arrogant and entitled
and always fighting against
scary mommy in your head
and always trying to prove your potency.
What about you? Hmm?
You drawn to work like this
because you hate men?
All humans have histories. What makes yours
any more virtuous than mine?
How dare you?
You didn't take it out alone, did you?
Me?
No, of course not. What do you think I am?
Ow! What the
[NATESSA] I had a team follow me,
and, uh, then when you were out,
they came in, and they got to work.
♪
[NATESSA] And it went very smoothly,
which is not always the case.
What did you put inside me?
You know, actually, they've
they've never told me what those are.
But what I do know is that,
because of what you're walking
around with right now,
you are worth more
than you have ever been before
or ever will be again.
So someone is coming for me?
Yeah, any day now, they're gonna come,
and they're just gonna
gonna chop it right out.
And then you'll be just
as worthless as you were
before all of this happened.
Can you please let go of me, Toby?
You're really starting to hurt me.
Good.
[BRITISH ACCENT]
Look, Toby, I'm an actor. Okay?
This is a gig.
I-I just got my SAG card.
I went to Carnegie Mellon.
I'm trying to pay my student loans. I
I don't know what the fuck's going on.
Can you please just let me go?
[WHIMPERS]
- [GUNSHOT]
- [GRUNTS]
You shot me.
Ah.
[TOBY] I didn't want to kill her.
I just wanted details.
Well, you should've called me. We could've,
we could've dumped her
somewhere. I don't know.
Toby, Toby, I think
I think we should go to the police
and just convince them
that this really happened
- the way that you said it did.
- I'll go to prison for life.
They're never gonna believe me.
Probably already suspect you.
I really think this is the best way.
You turn yourself in, you get ahead of it,
and-and then I will find
the best defense lawyer,
and-and we will lawyer you up, and
Oh, you're forgetting one thing.
Natessa said that I'm a valuable commodity.
She's talking about this thing
inside me, growing.
Sooner or later, they're gonna want it back.
I should just
I should just go to Brazil,
where they have no extradition treaty
and-and-and the best surgeons.
A new life. You
You should come with me.
I have a ton of money,
and it's all in crypto.
We can live in Rio in a penthouse,
soon as I get this
fucking parasite out of me.
Us? The two of us?
Maybe I sort of do love you.
Maybe you're exactly what I need.
Maybe
I'm just now realizing it.
Don't
Toby! Toby. [SHUDDERS]
Look, I'll take care of this.
I'll call the police, and
I-I just, I really think that
that's the best way.
Okay?
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
I know it sounds insane, but
I'm telling you what I saw.
[MARKHAM] Do you know
what was here last night?
[GRANT] Book signing.
New teenage vampire book.
- They're calling it the next Twilight.
- What?
- [MARKHAM] Yeah, it's hard to beat.
- That's impossible.
We have the names of everyone involved.
We have receipts, a rental agreement.
We even have one of the books.
A gift to the department.
No, no. No, no. I-I was standing
on this spot, and it was no
vampire Twilight book signing.
[LAUGHING] What happened here,
oh, man, it was, it was obscene.
There was something that happened near here.
This morning, the body of a young woman
was found in a dumpster.
She'd been shot in the stomach. Bled out.
Coroner said she died some time last night.
She matches the description of the woman
you say assaulted you in your bedroom.
She's even got a large tattoo on her back.
You wouldn't know anything
about that, though, would you?
I don't know anything about that.
I just know what happened in this room.
A bunch of preteens getting
their minds blown by literature
is what happened.
[TOBY] It was unintentional.
I didn't mean to kill her.
But you told us this was the woman
who stole one of your kidneys.
I can't say. I'm not sorry she's dead,
but that doesn't mean
I went out there to kill her.
I just wanted to know
what they implanted in me.
Did you get an answer?
Uh Where are we going?
The police station is
in the other direction.
Oh, my God.
You're in on it.
Oh.
Oh, you two fuckers are in it.
I don't think we're the ones you
need to worry about, Mr. Arcaño.
♪
[SIGHS]
[LAUGHING] Oh, my God.
[LAUGHING LOUDER] Thank God.
Sasha.
I knew you'd come through for me.
Lee.
Lee, what?
Did they demand some kind of ransom?
I-I'll pay the company back.
I mean, of course I will.
You already have given so much, dear boy.
But I can't let the company
or you personally pay.
[LAUGHS] Uh
Hello? Guys?
Huh? Come on, it's over.
Come on. What
What's what's going on?
Welcome to the latest
acquisition of Trillium Corp.
Magna Mater Projects.
I brought it to Lee months ago.
It's still in beta, but, so far, so good.
- What?
- [LEE] Toby,
communications are profitable,
yes, but the most profitable
commodity is going to be
extending life and extending pleasure
as long as possible in the future
especially for women.
What
What did you put inside of me?
It's called a Glans Naftali.
It's nothing less than a brand-new organ.
A new organ?
[LEE] A miracle of
science. It works in concert
with the adrenal glands.
What the hell is it?
[SASHA] When properly installed,
it enhances the human experience,
produces new hormones that
rework the body and mind,
makes people better-looking,
stronger, healthier,
and heightens sensations,
especially those associated with sex.
[LEE] I've had mine for three months,
and I've never felt better in my life.
The fucking I've had is indescribable.
Every fuck is the
best fuck of my life.
You're going to give someone
that kind of pleasure.
You say that like I should be happy.
Designer organs are the future, Toby.
In about 30 years,
people will be walking around
with half their organs created by man,
harvested from people like yourself.
What happens to me after you take it out?
Sasha?
You cu
[AUCTIONEER] A Glans Naftali,
that most desirable
of our designer line.
For the most discerning client
who wants only the best.
[LEE] I think it's gonna go for a fortune.
Shall I bid on something, darling?
[AUCTIONEER] This will make every day
the best day of your life.
$2.3 million.
[AUCTIONEER] Going once.
Going twice.
- [GAVEL BANGS]
- [AUCTIONEER] Sold.
[ALARM RINGING]
[PHONE CHIMES]
Amanda, right.
Amanda Scott.
Amanda. Babe.
I got to I got to
It's morning.
Oh, hi.
I got to get ready.
Yeah.
I'm really sorry. I just called you an Uber.
Real life.
It really gets in the way, babe.
["I'M A LUCKY GUY" BY MARK WYNTER PLAYING]
Real life.
It really gets in the way.
I'm a lucky guy ♪
To have you here in my arms ♪
I'm a lucky guy ♪
Croissants will have to be another day.
And all of your charms ♪
To think that you belong to me ♪
To know you're not a fancy-free ♪
That's the reason why ♪
Oh, boy ♪
I'm a lucky guy. ♪
I'm really making an effort
to relate to women
more healthily, Dr. Krystal.
And yet, you are full of anger.
You think I hate women?
Women raised me.
My whole culture is
pure matriarchy. I love women.
[LAUGHS] You love conquest, Toby.
You're confused.
You crave intimacy,
and yet, you are addicted
to the dopamine rush
of these women on apps and one-night stands.
Don't try and shame me, please.
I'm really not down with the way
in which men have been castrated today.
Castration? By women?
That's what's happening to America.
Men are being made to feel bad
for their desires.
Ah.
In the six months
we've been working together,
it seems to me you look upon women
as, uh, biological objects with sex organs
that you almost pay to be in proximity to.
To hunt.
Maybe I need to see a male doctor.
Someone who understands the battle.
So you look upon relations
between men and women as a war?
Women certainly do.
- The lists of toxic males?
- [PHONE BUZZING]
All the articles, firings,
reams of men being cancelled.
[PHONE CONTINUES BUZZING]
Uh
There seems to be a disconnect
between your heart and your brain.
We must work to make you
more whole, more integrated.
Hmm?
Um
I think we have to end early today.
I have to get back to
the office. There's a meeting.
Think about it, Toby.
The heart and the brain,
they're not communicating.
Mm? See you next week.
[PHONE BUZZES]
[TOBY] "Tech-Bro with sensitive side"
"seeks fun and games and more
"with someone who is in on
"the joke of life and wants
"good times without
"being too serious.
"My motto is
"'Make America fun again.'
"Need a plus-one for trips,
"concerts, festivals,
"wine tastings and
"hot animal sex.
JK."
Okay.
Come to papa.
[ENGINE REVS]
[SASHA] I mean, it doesn't
make me want to be anywhere near you,
but maybe a mail-order bride slash whore
- would like it. I don't know.
- [CHUCKLES]
- [SCOFFS]
- [ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]
- Hey, you swiped left.
- [LAUGHS]
- Thought you liked me.
- Mm
You know, you should get on this app.
- Pincher is
- Pincher?
Toby, don't you want something
real and decent with another person?
"Real and decent"?
Those are qualities I want
in a law firm, not a lover.
Women prefer a decisive man,
not some neutered, post-modern,
hyper-allergenic, socialist poet
with low T and an even lower libido.
How's therapy going?
Frankly, you seem to be getting worse.
Krystal's a really good shrink.
I don't know what's going on.
I think she hates me, but I dig it.
It was a good recommendation,
although I don't know how I feel about
seeing the same shrink you're seeing.
[PHONE CHIMES]
Uh-oh.
Principal's office. Got to run.
[LEE] Toby.
My mentee, my protégé,
my bright shining star, my prodigal child.
Back in the doghouse.
And here we are having another chat.
You have brilliant ideas
about how to sell our services
and how to grow,
but you don't seem
to really care about anything
other than your own pleasure.
I care about profit margins,
about market forces.
Not as much as you care
about being a player.
Your performance review?
My God.
Late for work, late for meetings,
and, in those meetings,
you're unfocused and distracted,
always checking your phone,
always elsewhere.
I have several different constituencies
in the company that I serve,
and they all require my
Oh, should I take some
of those constituencies
away from you, then, Toby?
Send you to Iceland
to run analytics and comms?
Perpetual snow and ice? Huh?
- Want to chill out in Reykjavik?
- I bring in more clients than
What could you do if you actually cared?
About all of it?
- Not just the hunt?
- My mother was a secretary.
Work came first.
There was no room for fun.
She worked herself to the bone.
Yes, she worked for me,
and we gave you scholarships and advancement
because of the promise you displayed
and the loyalty your mother demonstrated.
I've delivered.
I've also had a couple of
not exactly complaints,
but suggestions of
- What?
- Something adjacent to misogyny.
Complaints about your
growing disdain for women.
[SCOFFS]
I joke sometimes,
but my whole schtick
is filled with irony. [CHUCKLES]
- It's not real toxic masculinity.
- Since your divorce,
you made some of
your female colleagues uneasy,
and that is a problem,
and even since you began therapy for it,
I don't see much progress.
I've invested so much in you.
[PHONE BUZZING]
I need an heir here.
- [TOBY] Uh-huh.
- [LEE] I'm talking about
who comes after the person
who comes after the person
who comes after me in this chair
and the stability of
not being a chronic fornicator,
being a serious man.
I need someone to really head up
our new advanced A.I. marketing
project next quarter.
I could do that.
I want it to be you, but
I don't think we can have
this conversation again, Toby.
The next one is more formal,
more people in the room,
more intense, more
final.
She wasn't critical of you at all?
She gave me a talking-to,
but it was more of a mom talk.
Has anyone complained about me?
I I mean
- [PHONE BUZZES]
- Hey, look at this.
Her name is Natessa.
Natessa? What is she, a candy bar?
That sounds like a fake name.
I don't care what her real name is.
Sometimes I go as Bruno Ziplock
1010. I mean, look at her.
Those angles, that jaw, those lips.
She's like a deep fake honey trap
from Russia.
She looks like a doll.
[NATESSA] Toby?
Oh, you look just like your
pictures. That's such a relief.
Yes, Toby, as advertised.
Hi. I'm Natessa.
Would you like another martini?
No.
I want to stay clear-headed
for the remainder of our hot night.
[NATESSA] Oh. Okay.
You don't drink too much, huh? I like that.
I've seen what it does to the liver,
the heart, and the brain.
And, uh, what about drugs?
What is this, a test?
You, uh, testing me for "mate-ability"?
Oh, uh, it's just I mean, it's clear
that you take care of your body.
I mean, you obviously work out, right?
What do you do? Like, weights? Yoga?
I put in my time.
Now, it's swimming and kettle bells, mostly.
Well, it's paying off. [CHUCKLES]
I, uh, I just really like healthy men,
I guess.
You sure you're not inspecting me
to see if I'm suitable material?
Well, I mean, at the end of the day, it's
it's all about biology.
♪
♪
Ow!
What?
Natessa?
[GRUNTING]
Ah.
What the fuck?
[GRUNTS]
[GROANING]
[CRYING, SCREAMS]
♪
♪
[HEAVY BREATHING]
Hello?
[DR. SON] It appears someone, illegally,
gave you a radical nephrectomy.
They took out your left kidney, Mr. Arcaño.
I really am not understanding
what you're telling me.
Uh
Where is it?
Do you have it chilling in an
ice box somewhere or something?
No. Well, it's not in your body,
for one thing.
This is no small, outpatient surgery.
It's usually done with robotics now,
if the organ's cancerous,
which I have no reason to believe yours was.
And there's something else.
Mr. Arcaño,
in addition to
something being removed from your body,
they also put something in.
Am I dreaming? Put what in?
Well, it's not gonna be
that simple, you see,
because it's very intricately
and surgically attached
to a knotted thicket of arteries
pressed right up against the vagus nerve,
which you really don't want to mess with.
If someone put it in,
I'm sure you can take it out.
I'm-I'm doing some more imaging,
and I'm consulting
with a couple of colleagues.
A guy from Tokyo, someone in Moscow.
Whoever did this, they're very good.
You could easily have bled out.
It's remarkable work.
This thing inside me
what's it do?
No idea.
I've heard about things like this.
These rings that are out there
stealing organs.
Yeah, I've read about them, too.
There's only one problem.
Which is?
They don't actually exist.
There has been some talk
about organ theft rings
on chat sites, mostly on
the dark web, but nothing concrete.
Bottom line, it's all urban legends.
An urban legend didn't steal my kidney.
If it wasn't an organ theft ring,
what was it?
Rather than treat this
like a conspiracy theory,
we're gonna approach the case
as a one-time event.
As long as you catch
that succubus from hell.
The "succubus from hell"
scrubbed her internet presence
completely, and someone erased
all the security camera feeds
in the building,
but you've given us a good description.
That's something solid to go on,
at least for now.
If anything else comes back
to you, you give us a call.
Take care.
[TOBY] Sasha
[SIGHS]
Why are you so good to me?
Well, despite your many character flaws,
I don't really care
how many kidneys you have.
And maybe I'm having
some second thoughts about
swiping left on you.
There.
That's her tattoo.
[PHONE CAMERA CLICKS]
What are you gonna do with?
Reverse image search.
I got a hit.
Cybele, goddess of fertility.
Ancient Rome.
[SASHA] Also known as the Great Mother,
or mother of the gods.
More like mother of
all psychopaths, actually.
[TOBY OVER PHONE] But
you still can't tell me what it is?
All I can say for sure is that
it's hard-wired into your system
and removing it is even trickier now.
Why is that?
[SIGHS]
- Because it's growing.
- Jesus.
Don't tell me this is cancer.
It's not a tumor.
Actually, it resembles
some sort of gland, but
what it's doing or how it got there,
it's a real puzzle.
Um, I'm thinking of recommending
you go to Brazil
where they deal with a lot
of odd organ issues.
Doctor, there's no way one woman
could've done this all on her own.
No.
You need a, uh, support staff
for work like this.
Just transporting the organs back and forth
would take a lot of skilled people.
I realize you've been through
a terrible experience, Toby.
I'm resilient. tough.
I'm okay. I'm a guy.
But it seems to me that,
despite all my warnings,
you're immersed in pure chaos.
The police were here today asking about you
and this terrible thing that happened.
- It might be in the papers.
- Someone just stole my kidney.
[SIGHS] I need time
to get back on track.
Don't I get a little credit?
For the trauma and shit?
I'd like you to take three months' leave.
You need to heal and take stock.
Go. Do a pilgrimage.
After that, we'll have you
come in and we'll sort through
what our options are.
I can't leave here.
- Please don't fire me, Lee.
- Go to a monastery in Crete,
take a vow of silence.
Drink bone broth and read the classics.
I don't know, but you're on hiatus.
I'll need your company credit card.
[KEYBOARDS CLATTERING]
[TOBY EXHALES]
- [CLEARS THROAT]
- What the fuck?
No. Keep away from me. You promised.
We need to talk.
You need to hear me.
I don't arrange escorts anymore.
I renounced my life of crime.
I found pickleball. And religion.
- I don't do escorts anymore.
- So
what do you want?
I'm interested in where you got the escorts.
You found them on the deep web, didn't you?
- [SIGHS] The dark web.
- Yeah, that's what you told me.
- The dark web.
- Maybe.
- So what?
- My point is,
you're good at it, right?
- The dark web?
- I know my way around.
- Yeah.
- I need you to do a deep dive.
- Find something for me.
- I'm sorry.
I'm-I'm launching the new beta thing.
Whatevs. Look, I'm here 20 hours a day.
I don't have time to take on
your extracurricular pussy projects.
You wouldn't want everyone here to know
about your old side hustle, would you?
Your supervisor, Max Lipstock?
Max? One of my best customers.
You want to blackmail me, be my guest.
Just know that the first thing I'll do
is turn over my client list.
Fine, let's do it the easy way.
- I'll pay you.
- I don't need the money.
- 40 grand.
- Fifty two.
- Fifty-two.
- Fine.
This is gonna take some time.
What is it you want to know?
- [THUNDER CRASHES]
- [GASPS]
[GRUNTS] Fuck me.
[SIGHS]
[NATESSA ECHOING] Toby?
Hi, Toby.
I just came by to take something back.
- [CRUNCHES]
- [TOBY SHOUTS]
[GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
- It's beautiful.
- [SCREAMS]
[GASPS, GRUNTING]
- [EXHALES]
- [PHONE BUZZING]
[PANTING]
Oh, God.
- Hello?
- [WYATT OVER PHONE] I have intel for you.
I went to the darkest places
on the dark web
chat rooms that even the FBI
doesn't know about
but this one group kept popping up.
And I couldn't figure out why
the name kept ringing a bell.
What's the name?
Magna Mater.
"Great Mother" in Latin.
Holy God, fuck me.
And the tattoo on the woman
who assaulted you,
- you said it was the Roman
- Roman goddess Cybele.
She was dangerous to men.
This is the group's motto.
What did you find out about the group?
It's very secret.
Very much on the frontiers of pleasure.
They hold regular events.
I mean, I don't, I don't know
what happens at these things,
but there's one next week, here, downtown.
Well, you got to get me in.
I don't care about the cost.
That's good, because it's a hefty buy-in.
A hundred grand.
And, it goes without saying,
we're gonna have to create
a fake identity for you.
[SASHA] I'm just, I'm honestly,
Toby, I'm a little bit worried
about what you're getting yourself into.
[PHONE BUZZING]
Go ahead.
Okay. I, uh, I programmed your key card.
It's got all the data you need to get in.
But one thing. I did a little
snooping, and this group
Be very careful.
I mean, kill them all,
but be careful doing it.
♪
Welcome to Magna Mater. Your card, sir.
Nice to have you back,
Mr. Phelps. We're all set.
Here you go, sir. Enjoy the evening.
I always do.
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪
[GAVEL BANGING]
[AUCTIONEER] Next up,
we have this very exquisite,
perfectly formed pancreas.
Its condition is rated 9.8.
You heard that right.
You generally don't get
ratings like that nowadays,
with all the junk food, the drugs,
preservative-laden foods,
but this one was harvested
from an 18-year-old female.
She was a nonsmoker, a nondrinker
who practiced veganism.
For a piece of this obvious quality,
we are going to start the bidding
at 200,000.
Do I hear 250? I have 250.
Who is going to make it three?
Three. 350?
350. Thank you.
Do I hear four,
for this exquisite, youthful, vegan
American pancreas,
from corn-fed Iowa?
[TOBY] You have your eye on that one, huh?
[MAN] Well, it's a beauty, isn't it?
[AUCTIONEER] We have four.
[TOBY] You look in good
health. Why the interest?
[AUCTIONEER] Who is going to make it 450?
[MAN] You must be new at this.
[TOBY] My first time.
[MAN] The organ's not for me.
This is strictly retail.
Uh, very few patients come through here.
Mostly those interested in the aftermarket.
You can move these in Russia
or China and double the price.
They love American organs
over there. Don't ask me why.
[AUCTIONEER] Do I hear 550?
[MAN] Why are you here? Medical reasons?
[TOBY] Just curious, I guess.
[MAN] You know, some people
consider human organ meat
a great delicacy.
I hear that, uh,
there's a little bistro in Paris
where human thymus gland is lightly broiled,
- like sweetbread.
- [AUCTIONEER] 750.
750 going once, going twice.
Sold for 750.
And now,
a supreme objet of beauty.
A human heart.
This is a stunning specimen.
8.5.
Harvested from Emporia, Kansas.
That's right, a lovely heart
from the heartland.
[TOBY] Feel this?
It's a Ruger .380 pistol, and it's pointed
at the exact same spot
you took out my kidney.
It'll pulverize your viscera,
leave you dying on the floor.
[NATESSA] You're not gonna shoot me in here.
[TOBY] Oh, please. Try me.
This is what's gonna happen.
We're going to go outside
and we're going to talk.
And that's your only chance
of getting out of here alive
"Natessa."
♪
Come on.
Listen, Toby, I'm sorry.
Really, I am. I
I don't know what else to say.
Why me?
Low-hanging fruit?
Wrong place at the wrong time?
Your DNA was on Ancestry.com,
and your genetic profile was perfect.
Men like you
"Men like me"?
What do you know about men like me?
Well, you
you think that you're invulnerable, but
you're actually the easiest targets.
You're arrogant and entitled
and always fighting against
scary mommy in your head
and always trying to prove your potency.
What about you? Hmm?
You drawn to work like this
because you hate men?
All humans have histories. What makes yours
any more virtuous than mine?
How dare you?
You didn't take it out alone, did you?
Me?
No, of course not. What do you think I am?
Ow! What the
[NATESSA] I had a team follow me,
and, uh, then when you were out,
they came in, and they got to work.
♪
[NATESSA] And it went very smoothly,
which is not always the case.
What did you put inside me?
You know, actually, they've
they've never told me what those are.
But what I do know is that,
because of what you're walking
around with right now,
you are worth more
than you have ever been before
or ever will be again.
So someone is coming for me?
Yeah, any day now, they're gonna come,
and they're just gonna
gonna chop it right out.
And then you'll be just
as worthless as you were
before all of this happened.
Can you please let go of me, Toby?
You're really starting to hurt me.
Good.
[BRITISH ACCENT]
Look, Toby, I'm an actor. Okay?
This is a gig.
I-I just got my SAG card.
I went to Carnegie Mellon.
I'm trying to pay my student loans. I
I don't know what the fuck's going on.
Can you please just let me go?
[WHIMPERS]
- [GUNSHOT]
- [GRUNTS]
You shot me.
Ah.
[TOBY] I didn't want to kill her.
I just wanted details.
Well, you should've called me. We could've,
we could've dumped her
somewhere. I don't know.
Toby, Toby, I think
I think we should go to the police
and just convince them
that this really happened
- the way that you said it did.
- I'll go to prison for life.
They're never gonna believe me.
Probably already suspect you.
I really think this is the best way.
You turn yourself in, you get ahead of it,
and-and then I will find
the best defense lawyer,
and-and we will lawyer you up, and
Oh, you're forgetting one thing.
Natessa said that I'm a valuable commodity.
She's talking about this thing
inside me, growing.
Sooner or later, they're gonna want it back.
I should just
I should just go to Brazil,
where they have no extradition treaty
and-and-and the best surgeons.
A new life. You
You should come with me.
I have a ton of money,
and it's all in crypto.
We can live in Rio in a penthouse,
soon as I get this
fucking parasite out of me.
Us? The two of us?
Maybe I sort of do love you.
Maybe you're exactly what I need.
Maybe
I'm just now realizing it.
Don't
Toby! Toby. [SHUDDERS]
Look, I'll take care of this.
I'll call the police, and
I-I just, I really think that
that's the best way.
Okay?
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
I know it sounds insane, but
I'm telling you what I saw.
[MARKHAM] Do you know
what was here last night?
[GRANT] Book signing.
New teenage vampire book.
- They're calling it the next Twilight.
- What?
- [MARKHAM] Yeah, it's hard to beat.
- That's impossible.
We have the names of everyone involved.
We have receipts, a rental agreement.
We even have one of the books.
A gift to the department.
No, no. No, no. I-I was standing
on this spot, and it was no
vampire Twilight book signing.
[LAUGHING] What happened here,
oh, man, it was, it was obscene.
There was something that happened near here.
This morning, the body of a young woman
was found in a dumpster.
She'd been shot in the stomach. Bled out.
Coroner said she died some time last night.
She matches the description of the woman
you say assaulted you in your bedroom.
She's even got a large tattoo on her back.
You wouldn't know anything
about that, though, would you?
I don't know anything about that.
I just know what happened in this room.
A bunch of preteens getting
their minds blown by literature
is what happened.
[TOBY] It was unintentional.
I didn't mean to kill her.
But you told us this was the woman
who stole one of your kidneys.
I can't say. I'm not sorry she's dead,
but that doesn't mean
I went out there to kill her.
I just wanted to know
what they implanted in me.
Did you get an answer?
Uh Where are we going?
The police station is
in the other direction.
Oh, my God.
You're in on it.
Oh.
Oh, you two fuckers are in it.
I don't think we're the ones you
need to worry about, Mr. Arcaño.
♪
[SIGHS]
[LAUGHING] Oh, my God.
[LAUGHING LOUDER] Thank God.
Sasha.
I knew you'd come through for me.
Lee.
Lee, what?
Did they demand some kind of ransom?
I-I'll pay the company back.
I mean, of course I will.
You already have given so much, dear boy.
But I can't let the company
or you personally pay.
[LAUGHS] Uh
Hello? Guys?
Huh? Come on, it's over.
Come on. What
What's what's going on?
Welcome to the latest
acquisition of Trillium Corp.
Magna Mater Projects.
I brought it to Lee months ago.
It's still in beta, but, so far, so good.
- What?
- [LEE] Toby,
communications are profitable,
yes, but the most profitable
commodity is going to be
extending life and extending pleasure
as long as possible in the future
especially for women.
What
What did you put inside of me?
It's called a Glans Naftali.
It's nothing less than a brand-new organ.
A new organ?
[LEE] A miracle of
science. It works in concert
with the adrenal glands.
What the hell is it?
[SASHA] When properly installed,
it enhances the human experience,
produces new hormones that
rework the body and mind,
makes people better-looking,
stronger, healthier,
and heightens sensations,
especially those associated with sex.
[LEE] I've had mine for three months,
and I've never felt better in my life.
The fucking I've had is indescribable.
Every fuck is the
best fuck of my life.
You're going to give someone
that kind of pleasure.
You say that like I should be happy.
Designer organs are the future, Toby.
In about 30 years,
people will be walking around
with half their organs created by man,
harvested from people like yourself.
What happens to me after you take it out?
Sasha?
You cu
[AUCTIONEER] A Glans Naftali,
that most desirable
of our designer line.
For the most discerning client
who wants only the best.
[LEE] I think it's gonna go for a fortune.
Shall I bid on something, darling?
[AUCTIONEER] This will make every day
the best day of your life.
$2.3 million.
[AUCTIONEER] Going once.
Going twice.
- [GAVEL BANGS]
- [AUCTIONEER] Sold.